Bellwood-Antis senior Stephanie Hatch will be one of the most physically imposing players Tyrone will see this season.
Six-feet tall and rangy, she can handle the ball, move to the basket, rebound and block shots.
On top of all that, she may have to develop a marathoner’s stamina, because coach Nick Lovrich probably won’t sit her down too often. With his Lady Blue Devils going only six or seven deep, he can’t afford to.
Her ability to get up and down in the fourth quarter was a key factor in Tyrone’s 43-35 victory over B-A last night in the season-opener at the Bellwood-Antis High School gymnasium. Through three quarters, Hatch scored 12 points and blocked a school record nine shots, but in the fourth – playing without a rest – she was shut out in both categories.
Hatch found herself wrapped up in another key situation, as well. In a controversial call with the game tied at 26-26 in the fourth quarter, she was whistled for a technical foul when she kicked at a ball that had gone out of bounds. It appeared that she was trying to control the ball with her foot as it rolled away, but the nearest official saw it differently, and because the play occurred on the heels of her first personal foul, Lady Eagle senior Hilary McNelis went to the line for four foul shots.
McNelis made all four, giving Tyrone a 30-26 lead with 7:19 left, and while the Lady Devils pushed back at Tyrone for the rest of the game, they never led again.
“I didn’t see what happened, but it happened, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” said Lovrich. “The official made a call, and that’s just part of the game. There’s nothing we can do.”
The win gave the Lady Eagles their first win in a season-opener since defeating the Lady Devils on their floor in 2002, and it allowed them to showcase their newly-developed depth, rotating 10 players, while getting scoring contributions from five.
McNelis – Tyrone’s top leading scorer from a year ago – again topped the charts with 14, including 10 in the fourth quarter. The Lady Eagles also got a lift from sophomore Stefani Bryan, who in her first varsity game came off the bench to score 12, and junior Emily McKenna, who despite a tough night from the field managed to collect 10 points and six assists.
“For (Bryan) to come in here and play that type of game in this atmosphere was huge,” said Tyrone coach Jim Swaney. “She really pulled us out of the fire sometimes with some shots.”
She had to, because neither team did much offensively. Both teams shot under 40 percent from the field, and the stop-start nature of the game as a result of constant whistles gave the contest a flow similar to molasses in January.
Tyrone led 11-8 after the first quarter and went up 19-18 at halftime after McKenna converted on a conventional three-point play with a minute to go in the second.
Over the first two periods, the Lady Eagles forced 14 turnovers against B-A’s inexperienced backcourt, pressing after made baskets, but had trouble generating any significant offensive runs. Part of that was due to cold shooting, and part of it was due to Hatch and junior Lauren Carter, who altered and blocked shots in the paint, and cleaned up the defensive glass.
The lead exchanged hands twice in the third quarter until Bryan’s three-pointer and lay-up off a nifty feed inside from McKenna put Tyrone up 26-22. But Hatch made two jumpers with under 1:15 to play in the frame, including one with four seconds left to tie the game heading into the fourth.
That’s when the technical ignited McNelis, who scored eight in a row to put the Lady Eagles ahead 34-26 with 5:08 remaining.
“The biggest part of the game was certainly the technical,” said Swaney. “In that situation, it’s nice to have a senior who has been through the wars to step up to the line. For her to make all four foul shots was huge.”
With Hatch winded – along with the rest of the Lady Devils’ thin rotation – B-A never made a shot from the field in the fourth quarter until the 1:50 mark, while turning the ball over 10 times.
“Steph had to do a lot,” said Lovrich. “She had to bring the ball up. We asked her to rebound. We asked her to shoot from the outside. But every kid had to step up tonight. Coach Swaney was using eight, nine, 10 kids at a time, so that tired us out a little bit. But it showed a lot of guts and a lot of heart for them to play that amount of time and play hard the whole game.”
“I think we wore them down a little bit, and that has to be one of our strengths,” said Swaney. “We want to be able to make games into full-court games, as long as we don’t give up lay-ups. We hope to be able to use our depth to wear teams down.”
HOOP NOTES: Carter grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds, while Hatch had 12 … McNelis led Tyrone with eight boards … Ashley Roth had eight steals … Tyrone started five juniors and rotated two sophomores into its lineup … the Lady Eagles play Juniata Valley at home on Monday … the Lady Devils host West Branch.
JUNIOR VARSITY
The Lady Eagles led 15-1 after the first quarter and never looked back on their way to a 42-11 victory in the junior varsity game.
Stefani Bryan and Elizabeth Tepsic each scored 10 points to lead Tyrone, while Sarah Russell chipped in six on a pair of three pointers.
Tyrone led 25-2 at halftime.
Brittany Webb led B-A with five points.
VARSITY
Tyrone 43 Bellwood-Antis 35
TYRONE – McKenna 2 5-7 10; Ingle 3 0-0 6; Lloyd 1 0-0 2; Roth 0 0-0 0; Hoover 0 0-0 0; Bradford 0 0-0 0; McNelis 4 6-8 14; Bryan 4 3-4 12; Tepsic 0 0-0 0; Long 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13 14-19 43
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Hatch 5 2-2 12; Ralston 2 4-4 8; Sinsi 0 5-8 5; Carter 4 0-3 8; Smith 0 2-2 2; Claar 0 0-0 0; Mortimore 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 11 13-19 35
3-POINT GOALS: Tyrone 1 (Bryan)
Score by Quarters
TYRONE 11 8 7 17 – 43
BELLWOOD-ANTIS 8 10 8 9 – 35
JUNIOR VARSITY
TYRONE – Bryan 4 2-2 10; Tepsic 5 0-0 10; Walker 1 0-0 2; Russell 2 0-0 6; Turiano 0 0-0 0; Corle 0 1-2 1; Garbinsky 2 0-1 5; Christine 1 1-4 3; Bartlebaugh 0 1-2 1. TOTALS: 17 5-11 42
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Webb 1 3-9 5; Young 0 0-0 0; Parson 2 0-0 4; Hunter 0 2-4 2; Riley 0 0-0 0; Myers 0 0-0 0; Mortimore 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 3 5-14 11
3-POINT GOALS: Tyrone 3 (Russel 2, Garbinsky 1)
Score by Quarters
TYRONE 15 10 9 8 – 42
BELLWOOD-ANTIS 1 1 2 7 – 11
